Abstract: Most of the evidence on innovation process in the hotels, at the corporate level especially, used small teams in generating ideas, and also to solve day to day problems. One of the most unfortunate myths about the strategic development process is that it is the responsibility of the firm’s leadership, or a firm’s wide committee to develop a strategic plan and then persuade or sell the rest of the partnership on to employees to follow the vision. David (2000) argues that in accordance with this statement, the innovation process management that does not involve employees, human resource and for that matter teams may constitute the ream in a business that sells sleep and creates dreams for its customers. The study investigated types of innovation and processes that are practiced in 5 star hotels in central London precisely. It also identified processes the hotels go through when it comes to ideas generation and implementation with reference to employees. Case study design of qualitative research was employed for this research. A form of non- probability sampling, judgment sampling, has been used with interview research instrument. The study identified that, innovation in the hotels are not actual innovations but rather, recombination of old ideas with unique approach that is perceived by the individual hotels involved as innovation. The hotels sampled have something new to them. However, all the ideas ranged from renovation of staff cafeteria to a buffet service restaurant, renovation of a smoking room to employee educational resource centre, etc. This aspect seam to influence the level of employees’ involvement in idea generation at management level and this is attributed to the small teams that are at work. The most significant factor that deferred each stage from another is in various departments and the team work approach. The nature and functions of these teams, and also the attitude towards employee potential mainly as linked with motivation. This could be the reason why the employee involvement in corporate ideas generation is shifting towards line management managers and for that matter t team building. Customer comments and the like are clearly seen as other sources for generating ideas in the hotels as well. Customer comment card are used for solving day to day problems. . Due to comments cards and the powers given to the line managers, the directors in the hotels feel it will be increasingly difficult to involve employees, throughout the entire process besides; the thought of it being commercially expensive was more pronounced and not to be economical. Due to the limitations of the study, the study cannot make any firm conclusions into the specifics of innovation processes. It does however provide a first overview of the models used in hotels for innovation in 5 star hotels and other related issues that has not been done before. More research is necessary into these areas in order to gain a deeper understanding of innovation process in five & four star hotels. Other interested parties will certainly find this study as an interesting start to a much encompassing subject.
Keywords: Innovation process, strategic development, human resource, team building, resource centre.
Title: Innovation Processes in Hotel Companies (A Case Study of Zest Cafeteria, London)
Author: Faustina Mary Aku Otsyina, Victor Dedume
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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